Apart from China, the United States also face significant espionage threats from Russia, North Korea and Iran. The United States, as an economic and military superpower, is in a poor position to be attacked from almost every side. The current state of cyber espionage indicates that no government or corporate entity is safe from possible cyber espionage. These Chinese state-sponsored hackers were reported to have used existing vulnerabilities to break into the networks of the Vatican to influence and take control over the appointment of bishops by the Catholic Church and the status of churches in China (CSIS, 2020). The CSIS (2021) also reports that in July 2020, another cyber espionage campaign by the Chinese hackers was reported. The report by the NSA was also supported by evidence from the Department Of Defence (DOD), which in a report, noted that China is trying to use existing vulnerabilities to steal sensitive information on the U.S military that can then be used to weaken the U.S defence and strengthen Chinese military (Mazmanian, 2021). One of the most important instances of cyberespionage in the United States came in October 2020, when the National Security Agency (NSA) released a report warning that the Chinese government hackers targeted the U.S defence industrial base as a part of a wide-range espionage campaign. According to the report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) (2021), at least eleven cases of cyber espionage were reported in the United States that involved Chinese citizens between January 2020 and December 2020. In a report released to the press on July 21, 2020, the FBI (2020) noted that China is determined to use every resource at its disposal, including theft of corporate secrets, to degrade the US’s economic, military, and technological advantages.
This report examines the recent cases of computer espionage and the role of the United States.Ī report by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) (2020) shows that the United States in the past few years has received significant cyber espionage threats from the People’s Republic of China. However, with the emergence of computers, the world has moved into a whole new realm of spying through the use of vulnerable devices such as smartphones and worktop computers. Historically, nation-states and large organizations have used spies to steal trade secrets for economic and military benefits. With the increased dependence on technology, espionage threats have grown even bigger in the corporate world today.
Industrial espionage, on the other hand, is conducted without the intent of benefiting a foreign power, but for the economic benefits of anyone other than the owner of the trade secrets (O’Hara, 2010). According to the World Bank Fact Book, economic espionage is the knowing misappropriation of trade secrets with the knowledge or intent that the offence will benefit a foreign government or company (O’Hara, 2010). It can be classified either as economic espionage or industrial espionage. Espionage is referred to as theft of personal and sensitive information for either industrial or economic benefits of the competitor. The term computer/cyber-espionage has been lingering around for the past few years now.
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